Page 50

“Shh. You’re so good. You can take it. Take it like a good fucking girl.

” Another inch, and I almost come right there.

Inside her. “Fuck, you’re tight. Your virgin ass is sucking me in.

” She clenches her hips. I go deeper. “You’re so good.

Got such a hot little ass. You’ve been saving it for me, haven’t you? ”

She huffs. Her tears stain the window.

I don’t stop, spitting on my hand, lubing my cock, pushing in. With my free hand, I lean forward, gathering her arousal from her cunt and using it to rub her clit.

“Words, Ophelia.” I’m about halfway in, my lips pressed to her temple as I sink deeper into her. “Tell me how bad you want it. How you’ve been waiting for me to take you here.”

“I do. Only you. Please, fuck me.” The last of her tears trickle down her cheeks. She glares at me, fighting, but this time, not against me. Ophelia’s trying to get every inch of me inside her. “Fuck my ass. Show me just how much you own me. How much you love me.”

The way I love her hurts her. It’s evident in her scream. In her frozen expression. Her fingers flex on the window when I thrust hard and fast into her ass, and she wants it.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have kept her beautiful face pressed into the window.

“Stop, stop. I—No more.” Her pupils are blown. Her body attempts to get closer to the window. Far from me. “It hurts too much. Stop. James!”

“Properties don’t get to say no.” I have both hands digging into her hips now. My mind is a mess. I’m an animal, claiming her in the most basic and vile, brutal way. Marking my territory from the inside out. “Properties stay where they are. They let their owners do anything to them.”

“It”— thrust —“hurts. So good. But it hurts. Fuck.”

“You’re strong enough to take it. You should see yourself.” My attention splits between her profile and her ass. “How your ass stretches around my cock.” I spit on my hand, more lube. Keep fucking her. So good. So fucking good. “How deep you’re taking me.”

“Stop. Stop.”

She tries to get away again. All it does is offer me a better angle. A better hold on her. I use my grip on her hips, moving her body on me. Slamming her on my cock.

We both curse. I bite her shoulder, a few inches over her scar. A moan—fucking moan—escapes me.

“You’re a bastard,” she screams. Growls. Cries out. “An asshole for making it feel so good when it hurts. I hate you. I hate you so much.”

“You love me.” I slide a hand to her front, rubbing her clit. “You love the wrong man. A mistake on your part. Same mistake I made, which was falling for you. I didn’t want to, just like you didn’t. Couldn’t help it, either.”

Her breaths leave vapor on the glass. She’s giving everything she has to stop this orgasm. Muscles strained. Eyes pinched.

“Look at me.”

There’s that fire again. Threatening to ruin me. I rut into her. Stretch her. Pleasure her.

If I died right now, I’d die a happy man.

“What?” she says between moans, her voice tight.

“Come for me.” I rub her faster. Pinch and tug and torture her clit, making her eyes roll to the back of her head. “Come and I’ll tell you”— grunt —“just how thoroughly you’ve ruined me.”

“Fuck.” Her orgasm is as much of a force as she is. Ophelia shakes as she cries out my name. Tells me she hates me.

“You’ve made a home where no one else has been before.

” With those words, with both hands on her hips, with my ribs cracking from how much I love her, I come.

I empty myself in her ass, my fingers digging into her sweet flesh.

“Inside my heart. You’re fucking there, and you’re never leaving.

You’re never leaving me. They’ll have to pry you from my cold, dead hands, and I’ll still be holding on to you. Always.”

“James.”

I kiss her shoulder. Her neck. Press my lips to the shell of her ear.

“You love me.”

“Yes.” I’ll repeat it for as long as she asks me to. “I do.”

Our cereal dinner will have to wait. I have to take care of her.

First, the ankle cuff has to go. I pull out of her, lowering to my knees. I have one hand on her back to keep her from falling as I unlock the ankle cuff.

“You love me,” she murmurs.

“Yes.” Again. The cuff falls open. She’s in my arms, clinging to my neck, her cheek pressed against my shoulder.

“Loving you scares me. It infuriates me, just the idea of it. Because I know I feel it, but I don’t have the first idea on how to love.

I’m not sure if I can ever give you what you need. ”

“As long as you love me.” Her fight has dwindled into nothing, giving way to exhaustion. Eyes at half-mast. Arms limp around my neck as I carry her upstairs. “You called it an inconvenience.”

“Loving you is inconvenient.”

“Fuck you.”

“Pretty sure I just did.” That earns me a surprised laugh. I’m teaching her about my world, but fuck. I wouldn’t mind breathing in some of her sunshine in return. “Ophelia.”

I put her down in our bathroom. One hand is placed firmly on her waist, while the other is under her chin, pulling her in for a kiss.

“You let me distract you down there.” I swipe my tongue along the seam of her lip. Kiss her. Bite her. “We’ll be having a guest sometime this week. Oliver. You can’t be distracted around him. Around anyone, ever.”

Pressing my lips to hers, I swallow the breath she sucks in.

“You’ll be there with me.” At that, dark eyes stare up at me. It won’t be long before she falls asleep. “I need you there. You’re a part of my DNA. My ribs. My heart. We’re doing this together.”

She raises a hand to my cheek, and I don’t stop her. “I’ll do better.”

Despite her exhaustion, I say, “This isn’t the first time you’ve had to stand up for yourself.” I’m talking about her years in foster care. I need to know. Not so I could use the information against her.

I’m curious about her. Just her.

She nods.

“Tell me about it. In detail.”

Her eyes are droopy. Her body clings to mine, her knees threatening to buckle. She’s tired. I don’t care. I need to hear how my brave girl managed to survive. I need to avenge her.

Once we eliminate the immediate threat, they’ll pay for what they did to her. Every last one of them.

“What part?” Her speech is slow. Sluggish.

I kiss her, praising her for being so good for me. “The names of the people who hurt you.”

“Most of them didn’t.” Her lips curve into a sad smile. “I missed my parents. That was no one’s fault.”

“What part was their fault?”

The way I’m holding her has to be hurting her. I’m pinning her to me. Fingers digging into her soft chin. My anger at them is projecting onto her.

For her, I’ll use that energy to fix years of pain, years of emptiness. Ophelia will never be alone again. No one will hurt her ever again, and those who did will have hell to pay.

“Ophelia.”

She blinks, waking up. Reluctantly. “Two kids bullied me.” Her chin lifts. She isn’t giving her past the power to control her. My chest fills with pride. “One foster mom out of the three homes I went through slapped me around for no reason. I swear. I never did anything wrong.”

“Of course you didn’t.” I didn’t need to be there to know that. Ophelia talks back. She’s feisty. But no one should lay a finger on a kid. On Ophelia, of all people. “Consider them dead.”

“I—” She sighs, a little scared. A little hopeful. “I only have their names. It—It’s been a while. I don’t know where they live.”

“Their names and the neighborhoods you grew up in are more than enough information for me to go on.”

“James.” Her chin quivers. Lips pinched. Gratitude rolls from her in waves. “Wait. Um. Is this another test? Another game?”

“No more of those tonight.” I brush my lips along her jawline.

Then behind her ear, pressing a million kisses to the sensitive area.

She shivers so prettily for me. “I owe you this gift. Your revenge. For being so good. So mine. First, we take down the most imminent threat, then we’ll go after anyone who’s ever hurt you. ”

“Thank you.” She twists her head, stealing a kiss. “Thank you.”

The silence between us is charged. Normally, I wouldn’t care.

Tonight, it’s killing me. “You have questions.”

“Yes.” Nodding, she nuzzles her nose to mine. The intimacy is unfamiliar but not unwelcome. “Your dad. He was cruel. To you. Is that why you’re going to kill the people who hurt me? Is that about him?”

“Yes and no.” My honesty and openness are just as unnatural as our intimacy.

“I’ll destroy them for the simple reason that no one gets to touch you and live.

” Even my son. I thought he could change.

Show remorse. I know better now. “And yes, Ophelia. I understand what it’s like better than most. To be terrorized in your own home.

But I don’t care about my father. He’s gone.

This has nothing to do with him and has everything to do with you. ”

Ophelia is silent, offering me the space to talk. I’m hardly interested in that anymore. I’ve talked plenty for tonight.

She trusts me.

I won’t fail her.

I. Won’t. Fail. Her.